


A Porg In Hand

by AstridMyrna



Category: Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Cute, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, porgs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 05:56:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13357950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstridMyrna/pseuds/AstridMyrna
Summary: While Rose is recovering from her injuries, Finn discovers a way to raise her spirits.





	A Porg In Hand

Rose knew she shouldn’t be fond of the stowaway porgs on the Millennium Falcon; they tore up wires, made nests in the vents, and left squishy surprises for someone to step in. However, whenever she’d see one of the trilling sea birds waddle by her make-shift recovery bed, she couldn’t help but squeal with delight.

“I’m sure the novelty will wear off once I’m back behind the pipes,” Rose told Finn when he came to check on her at her bedside.

Finn rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “I’m not sure. Rey’s still enamored with them, and she’s not the only one. I don’t know why anyone thinks those things are cute in the first place.”

“You don’t?”

“No! They’re really kind of creepy, to be honest. Their eyes are way too big--”

“That’s the cutest part!”

“Have you seen the chicks? Er, wait, no they’re called porglets.”

“They have _babies_?” Rose gasped, “I haven’t seen any!”

“They look like someone dropped a wet jawbreaker in a bag of lint.”

Rose busted out laughing at that, but the stitch in her side reined in her mirth and made her whimper. Finn leaned over her to help her check her bandages, and the moment of joy between them evaporated.

“Hopefully we’ll get to that port soon, and bacta will help heal that wound in no time at all,” Finn said, his dark brown eyes hardened with concern.

“Yeah,” she said, struggling to smile again as she sank underneath her only blanket.

* * *

Finn left Rose to rest a few minutes after hurting herself from laughing too hard. He stopped in the middle of the hallway and slammed his fist against the durasteel wall. Damn, this was his fault she was so hurt. If he hadn’t been swept up by his rage against the First Order, if he’d just take his new-found desire to help the Resistance and use it to follow Poe’s lead--if, if, if. It didn’t matter any more if one thing or another happened, it already happened and they all had to live with the consequences. At least Rose was alive and had the energy _to_ laugh at his disgust with the porgs.

Speaking of, he watched one of the porgs tribble to itself as it crossed his path. Judging by its duller brown plumage he assumed it to be female. If this porg was female, then a nest full of porglets couldn’t be far away. He turned the corner and followed it, always a few steps behind so he didn’t scare it off. The curious bird craned its head back a couple of times, but continued to pad on its webbed feet as if he wasn’t there. Sure enough, the porg led him to her nest built in the corner of a control panel and a wall. The pair of puffy porglets wailed, their sharp, pink tongues wagging as their mother returned. He’d be seeing those tongues poking out of wispy hair in his nightmares tonight. The mother porg settled herself comfortably in her nest, her porglets snuggling under her feeble wings. She looked up at Finn and cooed.

“Still ugly,” Finn said with a grimace, “but Rose thinks y’all are cute. Mind coming with me so she can see for herself?”

Carefully, he put his arms under and around the nest, which made the porg trill in confusion, but she didn’t move or try to attack him. He scooped up the nest of twigs, wires, and cloth scrap and backtracked back to Rose’s recovery nook. Surprisingly, the hodge-podge nest held up as he walked slowly and carefully down the halls. It helped that the porg pushed her babies down and held still as he walked.

“We’re almost there. If nothing else, you’ll make my friend happy.”

A friend? Was she really that, after everything? After the kiss? They hadn’t talked about the kiss. He didn’t know if he’d ever be ready to talk about what was his first kiss and potentially her last. He didn’t have time to think. Now that the dust has settled, he found himself carrying a nest of porgs to Rose to hopefully make her smile.

Finn had hoped that Rose would still be asleep when he arrived, but she was awake and watching a holo when he entered. She dropped her datapad and clasped her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide and watery.

“Surprise,” he said as he settled nest on a box next to her bed.

“Oh!” she whispered and offered a trembling finger to the porg.

The porg sniffed Rose’s hand before rubbing her face all over her palm. Finn held his breath as he gingerly scooped up one of the porglets. The porglet chittered and the porg sniffed and licked her chick’s face to calm it down. The porg had its enormous eyes on Finn as he placed the porglet in Rose’s lap.

“Oh, it’s so fluffy,” Rose repeated as she ghosted her fingers over its fine hairs. “I’m surprised that the mother is so trusting.”

“Well they made themselves home here already. Maybe they see all of us as family.”

“Yeah,” Rose sniffed. “I wish Paige could’ve seen them. She’d call them creepy, but she’d probably want to keep a dozen of them.”

A tear ran down her cheek, and Finn reached out to wipe it off with his thumb before it could fall. She smiled at him and wiped the tears away from her eyes before they could run down her pink face. He placed the hand that carried her tear next to his thigh and looked away from her, his stomach starting to ache like it always did when he decided to break out of the First Order. He was afraid but there was something else to it too, something he didn’t have a name for yet.

Fingers warm and peppered with porglet fluff grasped his hand. The ache in his stomach aimed for his heart when he looked at her, her brown eyes glittering with tears.

“Finn,” she murmured.

He leaned in, curving just so he didn’t crush the porglet in her hand, and kissed her for much longer than a last-chance peck on the lips.


End file.
